TITLE
John 10:22-42 – Speaking Plainly to the Deaf
EXPLANATION
Next, we see Jesus at the Feast of Dedication, in winter. While walking in the temple He was confronted
once again by the Jews. They demanded
that He clearly tell them whether He was the Messiah. If they had been willing to listen
previously, they would already have known the answer to this, just as Peter did
back in chapter 6. Nevertheless, ask the
Jews did. Not willing to play their
games, Jesus pointedly responded that He had already told them, both in words
and in works, that He was the Messiah.
Yet, He said, they refused to believe because, drawing on the sheep and
shepherd metaphor again, they were not of His flock and therefore they could
not hear His voice.
On the other hand, Jesus’s sheep, who do hear and
respond to His voice, are given eternal life by Him. This eternal life cannot be taken away from
the sheep because the Father who gave them to the shepherd will not allow
it. What is more, Jesus and His Father,
the shepherd and the giver of the sheep, are one. Upon hearing this, the Jews immediately
resorted to their tried and true response to whatever they heard from Jesus
that did not sit well with them; they picked up stones to throw at Him.
Undeterred, the Lord asked them what they were going
to stone Him for. The Jews responded
that it was His supposedly blasphemous claim to be God that merited death in
their eyes. Ever the student of
Scripture, Jesus fired right back with a quote from the Psalms. He followed that up with a challenge. If He was not doing the works of God, then by
all means the Jews should not have believed in Him. On the other hand, if Jesus was doing the
works of God, then they should have believed the works even if they did not
believe His words. And again, Jesus
re-iterated that He was one with the Father, this time through the imagery of
each of them being in the other.
At this point the Jews attempted once again to arrest
Jesus. But, He escaped from them and
left Jerusalem, traveling across the Jordan River. He ministered there for a while, and many
came to Him and believed in Him.
APPLICATION
As one reads through
John, it is striking how many back and forth debates raged between Jesus and
the Jews. Repeatedly, He claimed to be
the Messiah. Repeatedly, the Jews refused
to listen and attempted to shout Him down or kill Him. And repeatedly, He went right back and did it
again, using different words and images.
The question begs to be asked, why?
Why did Jesus spend so much time that, to our eyes, looks to have been
wasted? Perhaps the answer is to
demonstrate God’s unfailing love for His people. Just as God patiently sent the prophets to
the ancient Jews over hundreds of years of apostasy and rebellion, so Jesus
went again and again to the Jews of His day, continually seeking their repentance. How much more then should we exercise
patience with those we have opportunity to interact with?
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